Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Bloggy Beginnings

Intro

In starting this new blog, I should probably spend some time talking about my goals with the blog. I have a variety of creative endeavors I am often working on and I enjoy having some responsibility to an audience, albeit a very small one. Whether anyone is reading this or not, I like having the sense that I need to create something for the next post to be worthwhile. Before I dive too far into a particular project just yet I want use this post to tell you about a little experiment I am trying that I believe will make even more projects possible.

I intend to switch my current sleeping pattern from the standard monophasic (single phase/8-hour typical) to a polyphasic pattern of my choosing. In fact, I don’t just intend to do this, as of today, I have already started it!

Polyphasic Sleeping

First, let me explain polyphasic sleeping and then I can answer the immediate question of “WHY?” that popped into your head. Basically, polyphasic sleeping is when you sleep multiple times throughout the day with the result that you can sleep fewer total hours than the standard 8. This is a well-documented experiment by the U.S. military, NASA and even an episode of Seinfeld entitled “The Friar’s Club” in which Kramer attempts this form of sleep with disastrous consequences. Some variation of this sleeping pattern has also been reportedly used by Leonardo Da Vinci, Buckminster Fuller, Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla just to name a few. However, not many living people attempt this pattern primarily because it disrupts your daily routine a bit and it is difficult to socially align your life to the lives of almost everyone around you.

The particular type of polyphasic sleep that I am trying is often called the “Everyman.” It seems like the easiest one to attempt first and the thing I like about it is that it still incorporates REM sleep which none of the other polyphasic patterns do. It has one single 3-hour REM sleep time followed by three evenly spaced 30-minute naps. The result is about 4.5 hours of sleep instead of 8. It sounds crazy but the Uberman has a total of only 2 hours per night! Also, polyphasic sleep is basically practiced by most other animals and humans seem to be the exception by practicing monophasic sleep.


Why, oh Why?

I went to Syracuse for my undergraduate degree in Architecture. Architecture programs are notorious for pushing students to extremes and causing significant lack of sleep amongst them. This was not very different with my experience. Most architects/architecture students wore their lack of sleep like badges of honor. That’s a little crazy in my opinion but here I am attempting a polyphasic sleep schedule so who am I to judge? But I start with this because I became used to double days (40 awake hours with only 6-8 hours of sleep and no naps). This was sadly a regular habit during my earlier years, so in comparison sleeping 4-5 hours each night actually sounded better than that experience so it didn’t seem as intimidating.

In addition to feeling like I was already groomed for sleep deprivation, there are a few other appeals to me with this sleep experiment. I often don’t recall my dreams when I awake, but this pattern encourages dream recall as well as lucid dreaming. Also, despite much of my skill at not sleeping at all, I am surprisingly not very good with short naps. I have read on other similar blogs that during the experiment and following it napping effectively became easier and more significant with regards to energy levels. It is also believed that once over the initial hump of the transition period into Polyphasic sleeping, that you may feel more alert and creative than someone sleeping much more.

Perhaps I can find myself doing more of my creative projects that I discussed earlier in all this free time I will have. I certainly have enough time to write this blog post, which I may not have found time for before. Some other blogging experimenters have said that there are side effects of loneliness and lack of things to do to stay awake, but I believe I have plenty to work on and that I also enjoy some alone time where I can focus and work on things without interruptions. Only time will tell how all of this effects me. I am excited to move forward with this and I am fortunate that at this moment I have the flexible schedule that allows me to try it.
So far, I am almost 24 hours in and I like the extra time, but I know that the first 1-2 weeks is the most difficult. I imagine it will be similar to a long and dragged out version of jetlag. But I have always seemed to have a good handle on jetlag. I often adjust very quickly. Again, this is something that will likely come up as I go through day by day.

My Sleep Schedule

The following are the approximate times I will be sleeping in Pacific Standard Time. Another advantage to this pattern versus some of the more strict versions is that if I miss a nap or it gets shifted a little forward or backward, it doesn’t seem to have the same devastating effects as it would on a more regimented pattern.

REM Sleep: 3:00am-6:00am
Nap 1: 11:00am-11:30am
Nap 2: 4:30pm-5:00pm
Nap 3: 10:00pm-10:30pm

This pattern leaves me with 4 awake phases. My intentions for those cycles are as follows:

Phase 1: 6:00am-11:00amWORK/ERRANDS
Phase 2: 11:30am-4:30pmSCHOOL
Phase 3: 5:00pm-10:00pmFAMILY/FRIENDS
Phase 4: 10:30pm-3:00amCREATIVE

These phases are mostly for weekdays and I have differentiated them because it gives me purpose for each awake phase.

10 Commandments of my Everyman Pattern

For my own sake, I have come up with certain rules that I intend to abide by so as not to become woefully unhealthy or mentally strained.

  1. I shall not eat during phase 4. Liquids only. If I eat here, I become a huge guy in no time.
  2. I shall not sacrifice health for this experiment. If I become sick, sleep is typically one of the best solutions and I will put this experiment on hold.
  3. I shall attempt to save more mentally active responsibilities for Phase 4. If I try to read during this phase, I have a feeling I will just end up falling asleep.
  4. I shall record as much of my cognitive changes as are known to me
  5. I shall record my dreams
  6. I shall make every effort to experience lucid dreaming
  7. I shall not let this become overbearing. I enjoy spending time out with friends and traveling and doing this that may last longer than 5 hours. The point of this experiment is not to stop doing those things for the sake of this pattern, but to do those things anyway and take note of how potentially difficult or not difficult it is to adjust.
  8. I shall not operate heavy machinery if I think I am too sleep-deprived to do so.
  9. I shall respect the sleeping patterns of those around me: primarily my wife Liz. If she is being significantly disrupted by my unorthodox habits than I need to adjust my pattern or consider giving it up.
  10. I shall be honest with my progress, or lack thereof.

Final comment

As crazy of an experiment as this may seem, I am someone who enjoys learning through first-hand experience and I feel like there is a lot of knowledge to be gained through this investigation even if it doesn’t become a lifelong habit.

References



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